Second Estate

The Second Estate was a French social class that consisted of the nobility and the aristocracy, a mere 1.5% of the population. As wealthy nobles, the Second Estate's members were exempted from the corvee (forced labor on roads), the taille (direct taxation), and the gabelle (the salt tax), and the Second Estate was reluctant to reform, lest their privileges be lost to the Third Estate. The Estates would be abolished over the course of the French Revolution, and many nobles would be executed for counter-revolutionary activity during the Reign of Terror.